Rebecca watched the door to the conference room at Cauldron headquarters close with a slight click, complete silence following the sound. After a very long pause during which she did her best to suppress the desire to scream in existential angst, she looked around at the others present in the room.
"Now what?" she finally said, her voice nearly breaking on the last word.
Legend, who had been sitting there with a face like stone, met her eyes. Then he looked at Doctor Mother, who was now tapping the end of a pen on her lips, staring at the table and not looking up while wearing the expression of someone who had completely run out of ideas. His gaze moved on to Kurt, who looked back and shrugged helplessly, then Contessa, who shook her head without a word, before going back to Rebecca.
"We do what we were told to do," he said in the end. "Unless you want her to come back. Because I really seriously don't think we'll get a second chance. This was the warning. Next time…" He trailed off with a half-shrug.
"Next time there won't be a warning," Kurt muttered.
"No. Next time she just ends us."
"You believe she can?" Rebecca watched as he slowly shook his head in a sort of wondering horror.
"You believe she can't?" he replied somberly.
After several seconds, she sighed. "No. I think she can do absolutely everything she claimed she could. I'd prefer not to find out."
"Agreed," he responded, still sounding furious. He'd not been in a good mood since their unexpected visitor had turned up out of nowhere in a way none of them could really explain and revealed quite a few things that the rest of them had kept from him. Apparently he felt rather betrayed among other issues...
"Glory to the fucking Hive," she mumbled, before turning to the task of dismantling the entire edifice of Cauldron and everything it had tried to do. As of now, they were out of business since someone else had done their job far better than they'd ever managed.
A faint snicker from the ceiling made all of them freeze, then cautiously peer upwards, but nothing could be seen.
Which, of course, didn't actually make things better…
Shivering, she worked faster.
The bugs were bad enough. There were worse things out there, she now knew beyond a shadow of a doubt.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Nodding to herself, Taylor smiled. "Thanks," she said, before putting her phone away. Amy, sitting across from her at the lunch table, raised an eyebrow.
"Problem?" the other girl asked.
"Not any more, no," she replied, picking up her fork. "A friend sorted it out for me."
Both of them looked up as Vicky and Emma arrived, putting their trays down and sitting, Emma next to Taylor and Vicky next to Amy. "Is everything ready?" the blonde girl asked, leaning forward after a quick look around.
Taylor grinned. "Yeah. Final tests all passed in the green last night."
"Excellent," the other girl hissed, tapping fingertips together and smiling unnervingly, which caused Amy to sigh and Emma to giggle. "Spring break is going to be a lot more fun than usual this year."
"Damn right it is," Emma laughed quietly, keeping her voice down even though the lunch room was loud enough it was unlikely anyone else could hear them. "I'm looking forward to this like I can hardly believe…"
"We all are, Emma," Amy commented with a nod. She glanced sideways at the table where all the Wards sat, something all of them were very well aware of even though officially it was a secret. A secret that probably about two thirds of the school had worked out, admittedly, but as far as the administration was concerned, as long as no one said anything no one was particularly bothered about it. Ironically the third of the school that didn't know most likely included the Wards themselves…
Taylor and the other two followed the direction of her gaze then looked at each other. All of them smiled, before going back to discussing completely innocent matters.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Glancing at the table where Taylor, Amy, Vicky, and Emma were sitting and talking to each other, Chris wondered what that lot were up to this time. Probably something really, really fucking weird. Considering who they were, that was almost certain.
Amy, the healing sorceress who teleported around the place with a smug grin half the time and seemed to be best friends with a bizarre and extremely sarcastic robot horse who was apparently one of Leet's inventions, although from what he heard the other Tinker spent a lot of the time complaining that Fess was a pain in the ass who didn't do anything he was asked to. The brunette was also good friends with the Hive from what he'd seen, and the bugs sometimes turned up with her, during which things got very odd… Armsmaster was still annoyed about that time around the New Year, but to be honest he'd had it coming.
Vicky, Amy's sister, one of the highest level Brutes and fastest fliers in the entire state, and also a friend of the Hive. Emma, no powers other than a cutting tongue if annoyed and the ability to talk most people into doing things that they probably shouldn't have done. And of course Taylor.
The Hive Mother.
He'd worked it out a couple of months ago, thought about his realization, and decided very firmly that he was not under any circumstances going to mention it to anyone. He owed the Hive a lot for a start, he liked the bugs aside from that, and to be honest it was fucking hilarious to watch how wound up the PRT in general and Armsmaster specifically tended to get when they did something particularly weird. And he was almost a hundred percent certain it was them that had taken out the Endbringers, most of the major Parahuman threats worldwide, and apparently Scion to boot, all at the same time.
He didn't have proof of course, and officially what had happened was still a complete unknown, but he honestly couldn't think of anyone else who could have done it. The Hive had technology far past that anyone else had, and spent a lot of their time collecting and studying Tinker tech which they seemed to be able to understand and add to their own technological distinctiveness… So yeah, if anyone could wipe out so many different threats all in one shot it was going to be them.
Although he wasn't sure why they'd done in Scion at the same time, but possibly they knew something he didn't?
He wondered if the PRT had actually come to the same conclusion yet.
Probably didn't matter, really. And he was almost sure that they had no clue about Taylor, who somehow was behind the entire thing. He didn't have the faintest idea how but he was absolutely sure that if anyone ever threatened the tall girl, they'd barely have time to go 'Oh, shit' before about a million angry Hive bugs appeared from nowhere and wrecked them.
No one had seen the bugs angry. He had a strong feeling that no one would enjoy the experience should it ever happen.
Yeah. Probably best to avoid upsetting the Hive. And he liked Taylor anyway, she was friendly and helped him with his math homework.
Looking back to his friends, he smiled slightly to himself, wondering if they'd believe him even if he did mention it, then returned to eating his lunch. While wondering what the Hive would do next.
Whatever it was, it would be pretty impressive, he was convinced of that.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Retiring?" Emily blinked at her second in command. "Are you sure?"
Renick nodded. "That's what I heard. Costa-Brown is retiring in June. Apparently she's decided that now that the Endbringers and so many other major threats seem to have been finished off by whatever the hell it was that happened, the job can best be handled by someone else. I can't say I can blame her. Everything changed overnight and we're still trying to work out the long term ramifications."
Nodding thoughtfully, Emily spun her chair around to look out the window into the sunlit early spring day. "True enough. Well, I can't say I'll actually miss the woman, but I wish her well in whatever she does next. I wonder who they'll get to take the job?"
"Word has it Armstrong's on the short list, along with Petter, the former FBI deputy, and a few others, but it's early days yet." Renick walked over to stand looking out the window beside her. "There's still no word on Eidolon either. He's dropped out of sight entirely. And Alexandria is being very quiet too, for that matter. It's only Legend who is acting normally from what I can tell. I guess the Endbringers going pop really caused the Triumvirate to think about what they wanted to do next."
"I think it had that effect on most people, Mike," she commented, glancing at him. "It's been much quieter than I've ever seen it since that day."
He snorted a laugh. "At least partly because no villain wants to find out if whatever took out the Endbringers, the Machine Army, and god knows who else might have another go if they get too loud. No one knows who did it, how they did it, or whether they can do it again, and they don't want to discover any of that the hard way,"
She shook her head. "We both know who probably did it," she replied as she turned the chair back to her desk. He leaned against the windowsill and watched her. "Even if we don't want to put it in an official report."
"You really think the Hive did all that?" he asked curiously.
"Who else could?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Those fucking bugs have technology not even Armsmaster or Dragon can understand, and we know the Hive itself is absolutely enormous. God alone knows what's down there. If anyone could do what happened, our local alien bugs could. And I still can't believe we have actual alien bugs living under the city…"
He looked over his shoulder, shivered a little, and returned his gaze to her. "Neither can I, but…"
"Yeah." Emily sighed. "I have no idea why Costa-Brown never asked what was going on with that and to be honest I'm glad she didn't, because I don't have the faintest idea what I'd have told her. Nothing I could come up with is as bizarre as the truth is. At least they mostly just fix things and amuse themselves at Armsmaster's expense."
"They largely stopped doing that," Renick replied with a small grin. "But he won't let it go so he keeps making a fool of himself. I think at this point they're just reacting to him because it's funnier than ignoring him. Someone needs to talk to the man. I know Dragon tried, but she's just about given up because once he gets fixated on something, well… You know what he's like."
"All too well," she muttered. "I'd have thought he'd have given it up as a bad idea when we found out just how big the Hive really is, but…"
"He's at least no longer trying to figure out how to get down there," Mike chuckled. "He's not an idiot, he's just… a little obsessive at times. The man didn't see the funny side of having his bike stolen. Or critiqued by the thieves… Especially when they were right."
She couldn't help laughing for a moment. "That was a lot funnier than it should have been," she agreed, remembering the video that had done the rounds online. "Oh well. He'll probably give up sooner or later, and since there's so little action on the streets at the moment, it keeps him busy and mostly out of my hair. I hate to think what he'd be like if he was actually bored."
Both of them shuddered at the thought of a bored Tinker. That never ended well.
Turning back to the window, she watched the scene outside again. "I wonder how long this… not a peace, maybe a detente? Whatever it is, I wonder how long it will actually go on for?" she mused.
"Who knows?" he replied after a moment. "The gangs are hunkered down and keeping out of sight, yeah, but they're still out there. Lung and Kaiser aren't around to stir up trouble, so that's good, but it doesn't mean that someone else won't come along and start something sooner or later. Hopefully not soon but life being what it is, I doubt we'll have it quiet for all that long."
"No, probably not," she agreed with a mild sense of resignation. "Still, we can make the most of the situation while it lasts."
Emily turned back to her desk and picked up a report folder, opening it and scanning the contents for a few seconds. "All right, this one looks like something we should…"
Behind her, Renick made a strange noise in his throat, causing her to stop talking and look quizzically over her shoulder at her deputy. "Problem?" she asked.
A few seconds passed, then he slowly and jerkily raised his hand and pointed out the window. She frowned and looked that way.
Both of them stared.
Nothing was said for some time, until she finally croaked, "Fucking Hive!"
Her phone began ringing a moment later, several lights showing multiple lines were in use, and making her grit her teeth as she reached for it, while still staring out the window at the utterly insane sight they were watching.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Hold still!"
"It tickles, all right? Inside my head."
Taylor gave Amy a hard look. "Do you want to explode?"
"No. Not as such, given the choice," the other girl snapped back, sticking a finger into her ear and wiggling it around vigorously. "But this is fucking torture."
"Stop complaining and suck it up," Taylor grumbled in a more or less good-natured way. "This is for your own good."
"Your bedside manner sucks ass, you do know that, don't you?" Amy growled, flinching slightly as Taylor reached for her again with a glint in her eyes. "At least I ask for permission first when I heal someone."
"I'm not healing you, I'm adjusting you." Taylor grabbed for her friend, while Vicky and Emma watched, leaning on each other and giggling. "Get back here and take it like a woman!"
"It's weird and so are you!"
"All I need to do is slightly tweak your brain! Don't be a baby about it! Just one quick adjustment and your power won't go strange if we get too far away from Earth."
"That's what you say. How do I know you're right?" Amy ducked again as Taylor lunged for her. Both of them were grinning at this point.
"Because I'm the Hive Mother."
"Well, Glory to you then."
"And the Hive?"
"Obviously. That goes without saying."
"Kilzen, grab her!"
"As the Hive Mother commands."
"Stop that, you idiot."
"Zex, help him hold her still."
"Hey! Watch those claws will you?"
"My apologies, Bio Mistress. I slipped."
"Bio Mistress?" Vicky fell over laughing her ass off and Emma wasn't far behind her. Even Zex was giggling now.
"It seemed appropriate," Kilzen chuckled, slapping Amy's hand away as she grabbed for the two of his holding her in place. "The Hive Mother knows what she's doing."
"You're all completely insane," Amy complained, twitching as Taylor put her hands on either side of her head. "Fess, help!"
"Why? This is hilarious," the robot horse who had been watching the theatrics with enormous enjoyment replied, somehow emoting a grin through entirely non-human features. "Better than that time with Armsmaster and Über last week and I never thought I'd say that."
"Fucking electronic pain in the ass."
"I like you too, Amy."
Amy sighed heavily and waited, wincing a little as Taylor did something her own power was staring at with what felt like awe. Then growing excitement. "Ah, there we go. A little more… yeah. Done. No user serviceable parts inside, my ass." Looking satisfied Taylor let go of her friend and patted her on the shoulder. "All fixed. You want anything added? Antennae? Another pair of arms?"
"They're very useful," Kilzen put in helpfully, releasing her and wiggling four sets of clawed digits with a humorous set to his antennae. Vicky, who had dragged herself erect, fell over again giggling madly as Amy used both her middle fingers to express her opinion, which made Kilzen shake his head in amusement. Fess chortled, making her glare at him.
"I must be insane to let any of you, who are blatantly insane, anywhere near me," the healer grumbled as she stomped away to end up leaning on Fess, who turned his head to look at her then winked one glowing blue eye. She shrugged in response, although Taylor could tell she wasn't really angry. The girl just didn't like someone else pulling her own trick on her…
"Right, Vicky, stop giggling and hold still, it's your turn next," she announced, turning to the other Dallon sister who abruptly ceased her laughter and looked worried instead.
"Oh shit," she whimpered as Taylor advanced on her with her hands up. Emma pushed her firmly towards the taller girl and got a slightly betrayed glance back, which did nothing except evoke a smirk. "Gah! That feels fucking bizarre!" she yipped a moment later as Taylor grabbed her.
"Told you," Amy said with dark satisfaction.
"I was wrong. I'm sorry, Amy! Help me!"
"No chance, you deserve this," her sister chuckled, grinning evilly. "For laughing at me for a start. And that time last month with the ice cream…"
Zex shook her head with a tolerant insectoid expression, turning to look up at Taylor's mom who had just entered the room. "Humans are so very strange sometimes," she commented cheerfully.
"We are indeed, yes," the older woman replied with calm equanimity. "Are you finished teasing your friends, Taylor?"
"All done, Mom," Taylor replied, appearing satisfied, as she let go of Vicky. Amy shook her head in baffled amusement, still having trouble working out exactly what her friend had actually done, even though Taylor had explained in detail first. Unfortunately the other girl's explanation was so weirdly technical in a way that probably only made sense to her, her own power, and possibly the Hive, that Amy still couldn't quite wrap her mind around the whole thing. She felt that her power was of a similar opinion, oddly and strangely enough, although it seemed very pleased even if puzzled.
Taylor's abilities were pretty bizarre even in Parahuman terms, she reflected once more. While wondering, not for the first time, just how closely linked her friend and her friend's friend really were…
A damn sight closer than most Parahuman abilities, definitely.
"Everything's all ready, in that case," Annette remarked, nodding to herself.
"It is," Zex replied. "The ship is fully functional and all tests completed, our Parahumans have been appropriately upgraded, the fuel tanks are full, all coffee supplies are nominal, and…" She peered at the very large insulated container that Taylor's mom had put on the floor as she came in. "...The Lemonade of Triumph is on standby, I believe."
"Ready for deployment on the completion of a successful mission," the older woman smiled.
"Hurrah!" everyone, including Fess, cheered.
"Where's my idiot creator got to?" the latter commented a few seconds later, looking around the large room, then over his shoulder, with one equine eyebrow raised. "Did you kill him when you tried fixing him, Taylor?"
"He's fine, Fess," Taylor assured the robot with a grin. "I did him and Über first so they could get on with helping everyone finish checking everything over. We don't want the launch to go wrong, after all. It's going to be something everyone sees, and it would be embarrassing if we screwed up."
"You're trusting those two to do final checks?" Fess asked incredulously.
"My team will do the final final check," Kilzen put in calmingly. "Don't worry, we won't miss anything. But Tech Master Leet is good at finding problems."
"You mean he's good at causing problems," was the acid reply. "Taylor, can you please actually fix him properly before he kills everyone by accident?"
Taylor grinned. Then she winked at Fess, before heading for the door, whistling a happy tune, Emma and the other two girls quickly following. Fess watched them go, before looking around at everyone left. "Why do I have a horrible sense of impending doom?" he asked with a sigh.
"It'll be fine, Fess," Annette soothed, patting his side.
"You say that but you have seen what's happened in the last few months, right?" The robot shook his head, before clopping after them as the remaining people all followed behind Taylor and her friends. "Sometimes I think I'm the only sane person here…"
"Sanity is overrated," came back Taylor's voice, sounding very happy. "I have that on good authority from a friend."
"Who is even crazier than all of you put together," he sighed quietly to himself, but he couldn't help chuckling. "Still wouldn't miss this for anything," he added almost silently before leaving the room.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Taking a seat in one of the human-compatible chairs bolted to the deck, Danny looked around with a sense of awe combined with pride. His daughter and her friends were amazing, he though to himself. It was like something out of one of the really good science fiction movies from Aleph, the ones that looked much more realistic than actual Tinker tech often did. Three dimensional displays glowed around the U-shaped room, consoles covered in controls with cryptic labeling in front of them, alongside touch panels and all manner of other technological marvels. As he fastened his restraint harness he watched several of the Hive crew make final adjustments here and there, an omnipresent very slight background hum that pervaded the entire ship changing a little as they did. Turning his head, he smiled at his wife, who was next to him wearing a small and satisfied smile.
She took his hand in hers. "She's certainly managed to change a lot of things," Annette commented quietly. Danny nodded agreement.
"That she has. I can hardly believe how much. And I expect it'll keep changing now that most of the real problems are gone."
"With luck, I think you're probably right. Although I'm sure that more problems will sooner or later crop up. That's how life works," she replied with a mild shrug. "Still, we can but press on and see what happens."
Hearing a sound behind them, both the elder Heberts looked around to see Kilzen, Zex, and Taylor come onto the bridge. "HIVE MOTHER ON DECK!" someone shouted, making Taylor grin and Zex shake her head in despair, while Kilzen laughed.
"Stop that!" the oldest Hive member snapped. "And stop watching silly TV shows. We have a job to do."
"Aww…" Danny wasn't sure who'd said it, but several sets of antennae slumped a little, before perking up again. He grinned to himself. They really were hilarious as well as incredibly good at what they did. Considering all this had taken less than a year… Yeah, things were changing fast.
"All right, everyone, take your places," Kilzen called, moving to the Hive-compatible chair to the left of a human-type one in the middle of the bridge. Zex sat in the one on the right, while Taylor was in the middle. All three of them put their harnesses on too. Even as they were doing this, Amy and her sister along with Emma ran onto the bridge.
"Sorry, we got distracted," Emma panted, taking her seat. The other pair also did likewise. "This ship is so amazing!"
"Plenty of time to explore it, Ems," Taylor replied, looking over her shoulder with a broad smile. "Right now, it's time to fly it."
"Final checklist, please," Kilzen ordered, looking around at the rest. Within seconds each station was reporting back.
"Primary, secondary, and tertiary reactors all online, no errors logged. Fuel flow nominal, fuel stocks full."
"Antigrav in the green."
"Posigravity drive status nominal, on standby."
"Regenerative shields initialized."
"Life support nominal, all redundant systems ready."
"Gravity beam projectors pass self-diagnostic, on standby."
The list went on for a few minutes, until the last check was performed and signed off. Kilzen nodded in satisfaction. "We're ready. We can launch on your command, Hive Mother."
Taylor gripped the arms of her chair, the grin on her face almost disturbingly wide. "Open the launch bay, and take us out," she said in a firm and confident voice. "Slowly. I don't want people to panic or any windows broken."
"Initiating launch bay opening process," Kilzen replied immediately, tapping a couple of controls. "Gravity generators active. Shielding active. Sound suppression active. Hydrological compensation field active. External warning systems active. Holding for clearance… Port Master reports area clear. Bay opening."
Everyone watched the big screen at the front of the bridge, Danny chuckling as he stared, and wondered what the people of the city were thinking as they witnessed what was happening…
"I sure hope Kurt and the others are actually recording this like I asked," he whispered to his wife, who was grinning.
"Assuming they haven't dropped their phones," she whispered back in glee. "We warned them, but I have a feeling no one quite believed us."
"Bet they believe us now."
They shared a smile, then went back to watching.
"Bay opening process complete. Engaging AG drive at minimum power." Kilzen's voice cut through the faint hum which strengthened a little, making the entire ship feel like it had come alive.
Leet's voice sounded from the air. "AG drive functioning normally, all readings in the green."
"Thank you, Tech Master." Kilzen nodded satisfaction. Everyone watched as the scene outside the ship steadily rose, brilliant sunlight soon illuminating everything. Danny watched the external view with great interest and inner amusement as he considered the reactions.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Mother of God," Henry Deacon, the Port Master of Brockton Bay, whispered in shock. Next to him Kurt shook his head with a sensation of disbelief as well as pride for little Taylor's achievements, but he kept his phone camera steady the whole time. This recording was one for the ages. Outside on the roof of the port control building several other people were using much better cameras to record things too, but he wanted a personal video of the whole event.
"Told you it would be good, Henry," he said with a chuckle. The other man waved mutely at the scene with both hands, giving him a look of incredulity. "Very good, then."
"There's good and then there's whatever the fuck that is," Henry mumbled, putting the binoculars that were hanging around his neck to his eyes before whistling quietly. "Holy Christ but that's incredible."
The entirety of the Docks had fallen entirely silent as everyone, right down to the random homeless people who lived around the place, stared out over the water with their mouths open. The only sound was the lapping of high tide waves on the wharf outside the open window, and a deep throbbing rumble that echoed around the bay. Even the sea birds had fallen quiet, and Kurt was pretty sure that the entire city had come to a complete halt as everyone watched.
"Good luck, guys," he said softly, tilting the phone slowly upwards to follow the action. "Have fun."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Mayor? You need to see this. Right now." Roy Christner looked around as his aide ran into the council chamber, interrupting the monthly budget meeting in a way that was very unusual. If he was being honest, it was also slightly a relief, as these meetings were mind-numbingly boring most of the time, so Roy leaned back and didn't feel too worried.
"See what, Len?"
"Look out the window." Len headed that way, and pointed. Roy curiously got up and followed him, looking in the indicated direction.
His mouth fell open.
"What in god's name is that?" he managed to ask after some seconds of gaping. Dimly aware that everyone else in the room had also joined them at the window, he stared in disbelief towards the water, which they had a perfect view of from this height.
Roughly in the middle of the bay, and more towards the Docks end than the mouth, the water over a vast area, at least three hundred yards across, was visibly lifting in a way that was both horrifying and surreal. He had a moment's terror that this was something to do with Leviathan before he remembered that something had apparently taken out all the Endbringers in one shot a while ago. That was still sinking into the collective psyche since they'd lived with the things for so long.
Light glinted off waves as the water bulged higher and higher, now risen enough that he couldn't see the other side of the bay past it. But even as he stared in disbelief, he realized that there was something very odd going on, even past the insanity of the event itself. Squinting, he studied the phenomenon, coming to the conclusion that it wasn't, as it appeared on first glance, a massive and impossible amount of water that had formed out there. He couldn't see light through it, except in a fairly thin strip around the edges, and moreover something just looked off about the whole thing. A moment later someone next to him put into words what he'd been trying to pin down.
"The waves are still moving normally on the surface, look. And there's even a fucking boat there too!" Roy nodded almost absently as he'd spotted the same thing. A fairly decently sized trawler was blithely sailing across what by now was almost a vertical surface as if it was flat water, while the pattern of the waves was completely unbroken. He tracked one whitecap far in the distance as it rolled towards the wall of water at an angle, went straight over it without pause or any acknowledgment of gravity being a thing, and collapsed shortly after hitting the more normal water to one side. Somehow, he had no idea how, gravity seemed to be working normally relative to the surface of the vertical water regardless of how it was positioned.
It was simultaneously absolutely awe-inspiring, and completely ridiculous.
Who was behind this, and how? And why?
A few seconds later, the bulge of water stopped enlarging, now being at least a hundred and fifty feet tall to the top, which was well above his eye-line. From his position it seemed to be cut off as if it was flat up there. Through the open window he could hear that traffic outside had completely come to a halt, a few horns having sounded briefly before it went about as quiet as he'd ever heard it during the day. Risking a quick glance down he saw that hundreds of people were leaning out of windows, or standing on the sidewalk or in the middle of the road, or even on top of their cars, every single one of them watching the same thing he was. Returning his gaze to the impossibility protruding out of the water in a way that made his eyes and brain hurt as they tried to encompass the sight, he saw movement at the top.
"Oh, my god," he breathed as the motion continued.
No one else seemed able to even manage that much. The entire roomful of people watched as what could only be an actual honest to god spaceship right out of a movie slowly rose into view, a deep throbbing note that was like the bass track to Creation itself gradually becoming apparent. He fancied he could feel it in his bones, even though it wasn't really loud as such, merely omnipresent in a manner more like a far off thunderstorm than anything else he could think of.
The craft gradually ascended higher and higher, while below it the watery bulge began to gracefully lower again, so by the time the ship was a couple of thousand feet up the bay was back to normal without a trace of anything having happened. No one was really paying attention to that though as the spaceship was much more interesting…
Roy stared at it, seeing how it was a long slender thing at least two hundred and fifty feet from stem to stern, with graceful lines that looked almost organic. A deep purple-blue in color, it almost looked like it was made of ceramic rather than metal. At what seemed to be the front was a dish-like construction, probably eighty feet or so across, which had a number of glowing devices inside it. The other end contained what looked like some sort of engine, four streamlined bulges arranged in two pairs one above the other, but they certainly didn't look even remotely like any rocket engine or jet he'd ever seen. There were no obvious exhaust openings aside from anything else.
The ascent slowed, then stopped, until the ship was hanging in the air in exactly the same way bricks don't, just sitting there above the bay. Checking to the side, Roy saw that the Rig seemed to have two aircraft in the middle of being prepped for launch, but he could also see what might well have been the entire staff standing on various external platforms looking up at the craft.
Who the hell was behind this? How long had that ship been down there, and where did it come from?
He slowly shook his head, wondering at the strange markings on the sides of the craft. They didn't seem to be in any writing system he was familiar with. A name? Or some sort of ID code?
Very suddenly, a thought crossed his mind…
'The Hive. It has to be them. No one else has tech this good. But that writing… Oh, fuck me…'
Roy had an abrupt flash of insight that made him feel faint.
'Aliens. Living under the goddamn city. How long have they been there?'
It was totally insane but in some completely warped manner it almost fitted. Brockton Bay was, after all, the place anyone who knew anything would have pointed to as somewhere that would end up with aliens if anywhere did.
Not sure whether to burst out laughing, or just sigh and roll with it, the Mayor of Brockton Bay watched as the floating ship did something, a series of lights flashing in various places across it.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"AG drive holding stable, launch bay closed. Final drive checks passed. Initiating posigravity drive in atmospheric flight and orbital insertion mode. Ignoring demands by PRT flight control as irrelevant."
The rumbling sensation that pervaded the entire ship changed subtly, and the scene through the viewscreen started to move sideways rather than down. Annette watched with enormous interest, feeling that she needed to learn a lot more about the Hive's technology than she had so far. Their previous efforts were impressive.
This was outstanding.
"He's going to be so pissed off," she giggled under her breath, with a glance at her husband.
"One day you really need to learn to forgive, honey," Danny mumbled, keeping his voice low as he returned her look.
"He knows what he did," she replied in an equitable way. Danny sighed faintly but squeezed her hand, both of them watching as the crew did their thing.
"Flight mode at level one. Orbital injection trajectory set. Beginning climb out. Time to orbit four minutes from… Mark." Kilzen's voice echoed through the ship, even as the scenery outside both blurred sideways and shrank below and behind them, the ship gradually pitching up as it accelerated.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Slamming the phone down Emily swore at it, hit the relevant button to suppress the sound of it being excessively annoying, and rejoined Renick at the window he hadn't moved from the entire time. The Hive ship, which is what it obviously was as she'd seen the fucking thing in that photo Dragon had been sent, started moving towards the ocean as she reached the glass. The subliminal rumbling that accompanied the thing grew slightly louder, although it was still remarkably quiet all things considered, and was joined with a strange faint hum that had harmonics which made her shiver. At the dish end of the ship, a ball of negative light appeared from nowhere, glowing black in a way she'd seen only once before.
"Fuck. It was them," she said quietly. Renick nodded. Anyone who had watched Dragon's video of the Simurgh's fate would recognize the impossible sight. Whatever tech the bugs had used to wipe out the Endbringers was at least related to this somehow.
The ship accelerated quite gradually, although in a completely remorseless way that somehow gave the impression nothing was going to stop it. She wondered if they'd done that to avoid causing any damage to the city, because it seemed possible they could if they wanted go a damn sight quicker. It fitted how the Hive tended to operate; they preferred fixing things to breaking them.
It crossed her mind that no one had ever seen one of the Hive bugs angry.
Then it crossed her mind that she very much didn't want to find out what that would be like. Especially as she was now absolutely certain that they'd been behind the Endbringers and everything else. And now this.
The spacecraft dwindled into the distance, curving upwards as it flew until it was pointing towards the sky several miles away although still easily visible. It wasn't as big as an aircraft carrier, but it was certainly at least as large as a decent sized destroyer, and wasn't the sort of thing you expected to see floating blithely in the air without visible support, she mused. When the now-distant ship was aimed up at a steep angle, the whole thing suddenly blurred.
And it was gone.
Many seconds later a drawn out rumble like the longest thunder she'd ever heard reached them, diminishing into the sky until it faded away to nothing. Complete silence fell.
Thirty or so seconds passed before she heard a few sea birds squawk outside the open window, as if they too had been taken aback by what had just happened. A minute more went by as they both looked after the now-gone ship, Emily at least wondering where they were going. And when they'd be back.
A much more familiar rumble became apparent as a pair of fighter jets roared overhead, then started circling as if they were looking for what wasn't there any more. She shook her head in resigned dark amusement.
Then she went back to her desk, sat down, took a deep breath, and resumed answering phone calls.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Where to first, Hive Mother?"
"I thought we should go and have a look at Saturn first. I like it. Then we can poke around the solar system for a while, and when we get bored of that, there are plenty of other stars pretty close."
"And we have all spring break."
"Yeah, exactly, Emma. No hurry, we can be back before school starts again. And when we get back, we clear out the Ship's Graveyard, sort out some other problems, and generally have fun."
"Best spring break ever."
"Damn right, Vicky."
"Course set, drive ready for transluminal operation at minimum output. We can go as soon as you want."
"Let's get on with it then."
"You have to say the words, Hive Mother."
"You are such a pain in the exoskeleton, Kilzen."
"Nah, I don't mind, Zex. And he's right. So… Engage, Number One."
"By your command."
A button was tapped, and the ship wasn't in orbit any more.
